The use of seismic data to analyze subsurface geological structures, such as faults or other stratigraphic features, is becoming increasingly more important to interpreters. For example, seismic data is commonly being employed to identify faults to facilitate the location of hydrocarbon reservoirs. In this way, wells may more accurately be positioned to facilitate hydrocarbon recovery.
As computer technology continues to advance, the use of computers to process seismic data is becoming widespread. As such, methods for obtaining seismic data and inputting such data into computer work-stations are well known in the art. For example, such techniques are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,563,949 and 5,724,309.
Once the seismic data is input into the computer workstation, the data must be processed and analyzed to produce a meaningful output. Because of the usefulness of the seismic data, many in the oil industry are now searching for effective ways to analyze the data to produce an accurate delineation of faults or stratigraphic features. As one example, Landmark Graphics Corporation's SeisVision™ platform is a seismic analysis application well-known in the art.
Although some software does exist to process and analyze seismic data, improvements are still needed. For example, no existing seismic interpretation packages include direct support for working in thrust/reverse faulted environments. Thus, interpreters currently are resigned to a cumbersome approach that requires several horizons to represent what is truly just one event. In addition, the current systems force geoscientists to accept the terminology of normal faults when they are dealing with quite different geometries; normal faults produce gaps in horizons called fault polygons, while reverse faults have areas of repeated section.
Hence, it would be desirable to provide improved methods and apparatus for processing and analyzing seismic data. Such methods and apparatus should include direct support for working in thrust/reverse faulted environments and should provide an efficient user interface for dealing with such data.